Hakimullah vows fresh attacks on US in video

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A US soldier reads a magazine in a bunker at a forward base in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Monday. PHOTO: AP

May 3: Thought to be dead, Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has resurfaced to warn of attack on the United States. In a video, made in April, Hakimullah Mehsud vowed attacks on the United States, the SITE monitoring group said on Monday.
Mehsud threatened to retaliate against the United States within a month for the killing of Taliban leaders, according to a transcript of the video alleged to have been made on April 4, SITE reported. “The time is very near when our fidaeen (soldiers) will attack the American states in the major cities,” said Mehsud, who was seen flanked by two ar-med and masked men in the nine-minute video. Mehsud was reported to have been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in January, but some reports last week quoted Pakistani intelligence officials as saying he had survived the attack.
Another video allegedly from Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban issued on Sunday claimed it was behind an attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square at the weekend, although the credibility of the claim has been questioned. If the TTP claim was authenticated, it would be the first attack by the TTP against a target in the US. The videos surfaced over the weekend after an attempted car bombing in New York City, and were the strongest evidence yet that he had survived the January missile attack. They underscore the patchy nature of intelligence gathering from the remote, isolated Pakistani tribal regions where Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militant groups have congregated.
Mehsud assumed leadership of the group blamed for the deaths of thousands of people in attacks across Pakistan after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a US drone strike in August last year. Mehsud said the TTP would attack the US for having martyred many of ‘our great their leaders including Baitullah Mehsud and many respected brothers from Al Qaeda’,” SITE reported.